


Polaroid Pictures

by Claireton



Series: Avengers Fics I write when I don't feel like updating Change of Plan but still feel like writing [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Embarrassment, F/M, One Shot, Reader is kinda awkward and shy, clumsy too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-27
Updated: 2015-10-27
Packaged: 2018-04-27 23:37:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5069263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Claireton/pseuds/Claireton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You've been hired to snap a few pictures at once of Stark Tower's famous parties. It's not a first, but things play out differently this time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Polaroid Pictures

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I know, I'm absolutely AWFUL for doing this instead of updating Change of Plan, but I just couldn't resist! I need a little break from CoP right now. I've never done a one shot before, mostly because I'm awful at endings, but I'll do my best!

You sank down to one knee, lining up your Polaroid camera for a  wonderful shot of a few party goers standing around talking. Taking a few seconds to focus the picture, you snapped the photo and turned the camera to remove the printed photo. The model you used was quite old, and although the picture quality suffered a bit in comparison to the newer brands, it had this retro style look that you loved to see. To your fortune, others seemed to love it too, so you weren't obliged to spend thousands on the newer versions and could work the way you liked.

The photo developed within a few moments, and you smiled down at it as you inspected the happy faces of the figures within. You raised your eyes back from the photo as you stored it safely away in your satchel, now looking to the living versions of these people. Seeing them all so happy talking to each other made you feel happy yourself, and you found your smile widening as they all cried out in laugher simultaneously at someone's joke.

It wasn't the first time you had been hired to shoot at one of Stark Tower's parties, and you were hoping it wasn't the last. As if being paid to shoot for someone like Tony Stark wasn't enough of a reputation boost, you always got really good pay for your work. At this point, you were starting to feel like he might even know your name, but that was probably just wishful thinking. If you were being honest, it didn't really matter if Mr.Stark himself knew your name, though it gave you a little ego boost.

You slinked around the skirts of the party, looking for other photo opportunities. Apart from the occasional glance and empty smile, the attendees ignored you. It didn't bother you, however. You had become used to it at this point, and it actually made it easier to get good shots. You hadn't even bothered to dress up, opting for a more casual look instead.  It always seemed that photos came out better when people weren't fully aware of themselves being a subject. They just appeared more natural and in the moment.

You came upon another shot of a group packed onto couches and chairs around a coffee table, chatting and laughing while occasionally sipping from their drinks. You held up your camera again, lining up the shot, but just before you could snap it, a man sauntered into the gathering, utterly blocking the shot. You clicked your tongue and kept your eyes on the group as you shuffled to the side to find another shot. You were stopped your hip smacked a table, and at the same time your arm whacked a bottle on top of it, sending it shattering on the floor.

Your hand clasped over your mouth and you looked around worriedly in case there were any vicious glares trained on you. Fortunately, no one seemed to care in the slightest and you slid your camera into your satchel as you knelt down, scooping up pieces of shattered glass and placing them on the table. Intermittently, you stole glances up at the crowd around the coffee table, hoping they wouldn't move off and ruin the shot. In your haste, you weren't looking at your hands were, and you ended up dropping a load of collected shards back onto the floor. Your head dropped defeatedly as you released a weak groan, staring at the scattered pieces with betrayal. At this rate, you didn't think you would ever get that photo taken.

"Need some help there?" a man's voice asked from above you.

You shot a glance up at the man, barely registering his features before you responded, lowering your head.

"Oh, no I-" you tried.

Your head snapped up again to take a second look at him, and your eyes widened as you realized whom it was. Steve Rogers, known as Captain America pretty much everywhere, was standing tall over you, looking down with a kind smirk as he watched your distress. The smirk only seemed to widen as you were trapped in your surprise, unable to speak. Of course, you had expected him to be here, along with all of the other Avengers, but you hadn't considered for a second that he might even look at you, much less speak with you. Without waiting for a complete response, he came down to your level, picking up shards one by one in his hands. Eventually breaking from your stupor, you cleared your throat in embarrassment and looked back to the floor, face burning. You gathered most other pieces and piled them on the table, reaching for the final one and gasping when your hand met Steve's on the same piece. You quickly retracted your hand, clasping it with the other one and looking off to the side in a desperate attempt to act as though you didn't notice. He hadn't spoken more than four words to you, but your heart was already making an attempt at matching a hummingbird's rhythm, and you almost would have been glad to pass out from embarrassment.

"I've seen you around here before during parties, you a friend of Stark's?" Steve asked, looking over at you and retaining his bright smile.

"Oh n-no, I-I just- no, I- like.." you stammered, multiple sentences clashing with each other in the midst of your embarrassment.

Growing fed up of your own mumbling, and even feeling the backs of your eyes start to burn because of it, you simply reached a hand into your bag and took out your camera for him to see.

"Oh, you're a photographer, huh?" he asked, standing back up and extending a hand to you.

You swallowed thickly and nodded before grabbing his hand, perhaps a little too tightly, and he pulled you up with ease. Once you were up, you let your hand fall limp as you prepared to be released, but Steve seemed to have no such plans and held onto it, turning it into a handshake of sorts.

"Steve Rogers."

"Oh, uh..(firstname) (lastname)." you offered, giving a weak smile.

"Pleasure to meet you, Ms.(Lastname)." Steve replied, dropping your hand as he looked down at your camera.

"So.. have you taken any yet?" he asked somewhat innocently.  It was a bit of a silly question, but you knew he was just trying to make polite conversation.

"Just call me (firstname.)" you responded, laying your camera on the table as you fished out some of the photos you had taken. No matter how nervous or embarrassed you might have been, showing people your photos was always an opportunity you would take.

You turned back to Steve, photos in hand as you looked down at them, with a genuine smile playing your face. Lifting your head to talk, your breath was cut short once your eyes connected with his. He was staring at you with a smile that seemed to tell you he was only happy because you were, and it made your heart seize up entirely for a moment. Clearing your throat again, you shoved the photos towards him and resorted to staring at your camera with feigned interest after he took them.

"Oh hey, this is from one of those instant cameras, isn't it? I thought they stopped makin' those when people started using computers." he muttered, shuffling through the photos with a delicateness you appreciated.

"Well, they-uh, they kinda did but now they're trying- um, well I prefer the older ones anyway." you answered, picking up your camera from the table and turning it around in your hands as you waited for your blush to fade.

"Me too." Steve stated, holding the photos back out to you and returning his gaze to your eyes. This time, however, it felt comforting rather than startling.

"Easier than figuring out how to do it on the computer."

You smiled and nodded at him in agreement. Difficulty printing wasn't the reason you used older cameras at all, but you supposed it was different for him.

"You mind if I get a photo?" he requested.

You felt it was a bit of a strange request, but nevertheless you nodded and held out your camera towards him, hoping he would know how to properly use it.

"What do you want to take a picture of?" you asked, the question drawing your eye back to the scene at the coffee table; too late, the shot was gone.

"Well, actually, I meant a picture of us." he admitted, grinning at you.

"Oh. Oh, yeah, obviously." you said, forcing a laugh out despite your embarrassment, and taking the camera back.

Steve stepped up beside you and waited as you got the camera ready, turning it and extending your arm out. Even without looking through it however, you could tell that you weren't going to get a good shot; your arm just wasn't long enough.

"Um, it's not- uh.." you muttered, trying to figure out a way to remedy the problem.

"Here, maybe I should.." Steve trailed off, gently taking the camera from your hand and holding it out himself.

"And maybe if we just.." he continued. A sudden hand on your waist made you gasp and you let out an involuntarily noise of surprise as Steve pulled you close, leaving the two of you pressed together. The smell of his cologne was mesmerizing as he moved the camera this way and that, trying to guess a good shot. As he worked, you focused all of your willpower into not fainting against him, and you were barely lucid by the time he spoke up.

"I think this'll do. You ready?"

You nodded, forcing yourself to smile up at the camera. The flash came and you loosed the breath you had been holding. Steve placed the camera on the table and removed the photo, looking at you as he waited for it to develop. You tried to act as though you didn't notice, and instead fixed your sights on the broken shards on the table. This only seemed to make him more amused, however, before at last the photo finished, and Steve held it up.

"I like it." he declared, holding it down for you.

You didn't even need to look at it for a full second before you decided you hated it. Your face was red from embarrassment in it, and you looked as though you were being forced to smile with a gun to your back.

"Oh God, It's awful. I look awful." you complained, reaching to take it, but Steve pulled it back.

"Stop, you look fine." he countered, looking at the photo.

Only when you were struggling to reach for the photo did you fully realize that Steve had never stopped holding you against him. Being unsure whether to mention it or not, you fell silent and found yourself looking up at him. Within a few moments, he seemed to take notice of the fact and released you.

"Uh, sorry about that." he apologised, taking out his wallet and sliding the photo in before you could protest.

"So, how many more photos do you have to take before you can mingle?" he asked, a grin gracing his features again.

"Oh, it's not.. I mean there's not really like a quota I have to fill." you explained.

"But I'm not really the 'mingling' type."

"So, what? You just take a few pics then head home without talking to anyone?" Steve inquired. It was hard to ignore the tinge of pity in his gaze.

"Well, yeah. Usually." you answered quietly. You had never put much thought into it before, but now that you were being asked about it it sort of dropped your self confidence.

"Well that's no good." Steve reprimanded.

"You should bring someone you can talk to, I'm sure Stark wouldn't mind." he continued.

"Maybe your uh... your boyfriend?"

"I don't have a boyfriend." you stated a little too quickly.

"Oh."

A silence grew between the two of you, but instead of being alleviated by the noise of the party, it only seemed to feel more awkward. You passed it by tucking your camera and photos back into your bag with a slower speed than was necessary.

"Well, why not take the chance to go now?" Steve finally broke the silence.

"No, I'm not really dressed for a party like this." you said, looking behind Steve at the women of the party, clad in beautiful dresses and with their hair pulled up in gorgeous styles.

"You're kidding, right? It's a Stark party, not a wedding. Come on." Steve insisted.

Before you could refuse again, Steve took a gentle yet firm grip of your hand and led you towards the last group you had taken a photo of. Immediately, the group met you with happy greetings and pulled you into their conversations. It was really quite exciting, though you weren't sure how to make an input most of the time, especially when they were discussing things the Avengers got up to, so you just listened for the majority. To your gratitude, Steve stayed with you the entire time. Even being as friendly as they were, you weren't sure how you would cope if he had stranded you by yourself there. He was more empathetic than that, thankfully.

After a while, despite your interest, you had fallen into staring at a section of the floor and drifting into a daydream, replaying the moment Steve took a picture with you, over and over. The pressure of him holding you against him was a feeling you kept trying to perfect in your head, though no matter how many tries you took, none of them were up to par. You started to think about the photo again, and how Steve had put it into his wallet. What was he going to do with it? A part of you hoped that he wouldn't go around showing it to everybody, though you could tell there was another reason for it.

So trapped were you in your thought that it caught you off guard when you looked back to the gathering and found them all staring at you expectantly.

"What?" you blurted out instinctively, switching your gaze between most everyone.

"You wanna show 'em some of your photos, (firstname)?" Steve repeated, giving your arm a slight nudge with his elbow.

"Oh, of course. Sure, yeah." you nodded, taking out the photos you had shown Steve earlier. At first, you began handing them to Steve himself, but you realized he had already seen them so you turned and handed it to the guy on your left instead. You were pretty sure he was another Avenger, though you couldn't place his name.

The photos were shifted around, with people giving polite comments and occasionally pointing themselves out in the scenes. It was quite pleasing to see and hear how they enjoyed them. It certainly set you more at ease.

"I didn't even notice you were taking photos of us." a woman mentioned, her face pensive. You believed you had heard the others call her 'Mary' or something of the sort.

"Yeah, well, y'know.." you mumbled modestly, unsure what to say to it as you scratched the back of your neck.

"They really are great." Steve added.

"You've got a great eye for this kinda stuff."

"Thanks, Steve." you said, smiling up at him.

-

After an hour and a half or so of chatting, you needed to take a break from it all. Not just the conversation, but the noise and most everything else. It was certainly enjoyable, but it was a little too much to do it all at once on your first try. Once all of the others were occupied with one another, you slipped out of the ensemble and looked around for a more secluded area to rest for a while. After a brief search, you found that even the area that Steve had first talked to you was now occupied, so you fixed your sights on a door out of the view of the main crowd. With a quick glance over your shoulder, and thankfully not finding the entire party staring you down, you opened the door and stepped in. Despite the music and general din of the party goers, you closed the door quietly for fear of drawing attention.

Once you had assured yourself nobody was following you, you let out a sigh and turned to check out the room. For being a part of Stark Tower, it was extraordinarily bland, with just a few random pieces of clutter lining the edges, and one sturdy wooden box in the middle of it. Presumably some sort of closet. Regardless, you moved over to the box and took seat on it, grateful for the momentary isolation. You were really quite glad that Steve had encouraged you to take part in the conversations, and a part of you wished you had done it before. At least you would know for next time.

A few minutes later, and you had your camera out again, giving it a look over and carefully cleaning it with a specialized cloth you always had on you. You were almost ready to rejoin the festivities when the noise from the party suddenly grew louder, less muffled. Your gaze rose to the door frame and you found Steve standing in it, his expression one of near relief. Offering him a small smile before you lowered your head again, you heard the door click shut and Steve's footsteps head toward you.

"Hey. I've been looking for you." he said, turning and taking a seat on the box. It wasn't very large, and as a result left you barely not touching each other.

"Well, uh.. you found me." you retorted, stopping wiping your camera and placing it in your bag. You tried to avoid turning your head to look at him. At this proximity, you didn't trust yourself not to become a hot mess.

"Anything wrong? I thought you were enjoying yourself." Steve stated.

"I was. I totally was." you assured, nodding in confirmation, though you kept your gaze downward.

"I just needed a little break, y'know? I'm not really used to this, can't do too much at once."

"Yeah, I get that." Steve claimed. From the corner of your eyes, you could see him spread his legs, resting his elbows on them and clasping his hands between them. He leaned forward onto his clasped hands and stared down at the floor, leaving you wondering why. Surely he was used to this by now, right? He could walk out and talk to anyone, why would he want to stay here? You didn't want to have another of those awkward silences so you decided to just say the first thing that came to mind.

"Uh, you do?" you asked, turning your head to him with the question before you realized what you were doing.

"Yeah." Steve answered, turning his head to you and looking straight into your eyes. You felt as though your other limbs would suffer blood loss for the amount rushing your face.

"I mean, when they woke me up here, it was tough getting used to all the new stuff they had. I can understand taking things in small doses at first." he admitted.

You smiled upon hearing this, and for a moment your happiness overcame your embarrassment. You had never really thought about what impact the freezing had had on Steve once he was freed, and it painted him in this new sort of light that almost left you pitying him. You thought about how best to respond. Steve was quite friendly to you, and you got the feeling that he did want to be friends, so perhaps you should make a play on that.

"Well, if you ever need anyone to, like explain anything, you can give me a call." you said quietly, offering your best attempt at a reassuring smile.

Steve's face seemed to light up, and he nodded at you, likely in gratitude.

"I'll do that. Thanks, (firstname)." he said.

"So, uh, when did you get into photography?" he asked, seemingly as unwilling as you to let the conversation die out.

"Ah, I've always been interested in it." you confessed.

"Something about it... I don't know what.. it just makes me feel good."

Steve chuckled quietly, then looked down to the floor again, his expression suddenly turning thoughtful.

"Kinda ironic." he said quietly.

You raised your eyebrows in confusion at he statement, wondering.

"What do you mean?" you inquired.

"Someone as beautiful as you spends their life taking pictures of other people."

Your entire body felt as though it were seizing up as you processed what he had said. Unconsciously boring into him with your stare, your mind burned as it tried to decide whether you were dreaming or not. had he really just said that? The only reason you broke from your daze was because he spoke up again.

"Sorry. That was probably a bit.." Steve began.

"No, i-it's okay." you stated.

"Just.. like.. thanks."

Steve nodded at you, and though that part of the conversation had ended, you continued to stare at each other. A silence formed again, but this time it felt neither awkward nor embarrassing. It was tense in a good way, and before long you found yourself leaning toward Steve as he did the same. Just when your lips were about to connect, you hesitated, suddenly struck by the situation. It didn't last long, however, as Steve gently wove his hand into the hair on the back of your head and guided you to him, at last bringing your lips together. His kiss was soft, though it was firm and welcoming. His free hand found rest around your waist, lending you his warmth and a sense of security you hadn't felt in a long time. You didn't want the kiss to end, but your lungs begged for air, so at last you broke off, turning your head to the side as you took some breaths. Steve released his hand from your hair as you did so, running it over it once and letting it rest at your side after. This time, your heart and mind were much too aflutter to think up anything to say, so you took a different approach.

Swiveling round, you dug in your bag and pulled out your camera. Wordlessly, you leaned back so your head rested on his shoulder, then held the camera far back as possible as you took the shot. This time, you didn't even care if it looked good, you just wanted to have it. You removed the photo from it and placed the camera back in your bag, waiting for the photo to develop with one more glance back at Steve, who had placed his hand around your shoulder as you both waited. At last, the photo had developed, and you both looked at it. It was actually quite beautiful, if a little too small. Nonetheless, it captured both of your smiles and you fell in love with it.

"So, you happy with _this_ one?" Steve asked, flashing you that charming smile when you turned to look at him.

"Yeah." you laughed, nodding before you nestled further onto him.

"I couldn't be happier."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this took WAY longer to write than I thought it would. I hope you're happy with it! I'll start working on the next ASAP.


End file.
